Geography

The continent of Australia, with the island
state of Tasmania, is approximately equal in area to the United States
(excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Mountain ranges run from north to south
along the east coast, reaching their highest point in Mount Kosciusko
(7,308 ft; 2,228 m). The western half of the continent is occupied by a
desert plateau that rises into barren, rolling hills near the west coast.
The Great Barrier Reef, extending about 1,245 mi (2,000 km), lies along
the northeast coast. The island of Tasmania (26,178 sq mi; 67,800 sq km)
is off the southeast coast.

Government

Democracy. Symbolic executive power is vested in
the British monarch, who is represented throughout Australia by the
governor-general.

History

The first inhabitants of Australia were the
Aborigines, who migrated there at least 40,000 years ago from Southeast
Asia. There may have been between a half million to a full million
Aborigines at the time of European settlement; today about 350,000 live in
Australia.

Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish ships sighted
Australia in the 17th century; the Dutch landed at the Gulf of Carpentaria
in 1606. In 1616 the territory became known as New Holland. The British
arrived in 1688, but it was not until Captain James Cook's voyage in 1770
that Great Britain claimed possession of the vast island, calling it New
South Wales. A British penal colony was set up at Port Jackson (what is
now Sydney) in 1788, and about 161,000 transported English convicts were
settled there until the system was suspended in 1839.

Free settlers and former prisoners established
six colonies: New South Wales (1786), Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land)
(1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1834), Victoria (1851),
and Queensland (1859). Various gold rushes attracted settlers, as did the
mining of other minerals. Sheep farming and grain soon grew into important
economic enterprises. The six colonies became states and in 1901 federated
into the Commonwealth of Australia with a constitution that incorporated
British parliamentary and U.S. federal traditions. Australia became known
for its liberal legislation: free compulsory education, protected trade
unionism with industrial conciliation and arbitration, the secret ballot,
women's suffrage, maternity allowances, and sickness and old-age
pensions.